An eight-year-old Colombian girl has died after “choking on her own blood” following a tooth extraction which went wrong.
Salome Bohorquez was rushed to hospital after having a cracked molar removed by her dentist as part of an emergency procedure.
The eight-year-old’s mother said her daughter’s mouth was bleeding profusely after the tooth was removed.
The dentist, panicking at the escalating situation, volunteered to transport them to San Juan de Dios Hospital, in Tolima, 125 miles southwest of the Colombian capital Bogota.
The young girl was still alive when she arrived at the hospital but doctors were unable to stop her from asphyxiating.
Azucena Triana told a local news outlet that her twin child had been complaining of pain and was treated by Dr Jose Herrera at his office in Honda, Tolima, on August 4.
The distraught mother said the orthodontist requested x-rays at a nearby lab and the images showed that Bohorquez’s molar was chipped, which is not an uncommon injury.
The dentist then carried out an emergency procedure that same day to remove the tooth as it was “harming” her gums.
Though the procedure was swift, the eight-year-old girl’s mouth then started to fill with blood.
“The girl was still alive. She entered the hospital alive,” the mother said. “They couldn’t do anything for her… she choked on her own blood.”
Triana revealed that Bohorquez has been previously diagnosed with anaemia and had recovered following a series of treatments administered by her paediatrician.
The family said that the child’s passing has been difficult on her twin brother, Nicholas.
They described the third grader as a child who loved to sing and create TikTok content.
“She gifted us with eight years of happiness. She was the life of the party in our home,” her older sister Maria said.
Triana stopped short of holding Dr Herrera accountable for their daughter’s unexpected death.
“We are not going to cast blame on the doctor. First (let’s wait) what the autopsy shows,” she said.
